500 Whys: Writing your Purpose Statement

Purpose matters.

A purpose can give coherent meaning to a career. It can help with the difficult decisions required to craft a career worth creating. 

Articulating what we believe in, what our objective is, makes us more aware of what we should be doing. It makes us accountable to ourselves. It stops us from following job offers that are tempting in the short run but leave us far from happy and far from where we want to be. Purpose helps us navigate, motivate and filter out the noise. 

It opens our eyes to opportunities we’ve been neglecting. 

Purpose reminds us of the possible. 

— — —

The hardest part in crafting a purpose statement is beginning. 

Conjuring a definitive single sentence that encapsulates what it is that you are working for is daunting. It seems furiously final, and far-fetched.

My belief, firmly held, is that to craft a purpose statement, one should immerse yourself in examples. Play with them. Try them on for size. Tweak and remaster and experiment.

The blanker the page, the more likely we are to procrastinate. The more intimidated we become.

Crafting a purpose statement from the cuttings of other statements is more effective than beginning with a blank page. 

And yet, finding examples of purpose statements is much harder than it should be.

There are occasional blog posts that list 10 or 20, a handful of books detailing corporate mission and vision statements of Forbes Top 50.

Esteemed authors and coaches like Simon Sinek, Bill Burnett and Daniel Pink each have excellent books on the methods of understanding and unearthing one's purpose.

But there's nothing that emphasising a broad, far-ranging, diverse set of example purpose statements.

— — —

And so 500 Whys: Writing your Purpose Statement is a short book that focuses on exactly that.

It is a book of 500 single sentences. 500 purpose statements. 

Examples that will help you immediately find a statement that’s 80% right. A statement that resonates mostly but not perfectly. That will give you something to remaster. Something with which to experiment. 

This book is about examples and examples alone. 500 of them. It assumes that you already recognise the benefit of defining a purpose for yourself; the clarifying value of viewing life and career decisions through a defined purpose.  

— — —

These “Whys” been loosely categorised as Technology, Education & Empowering Others, Peace & Safety, Human Responsibility, Knowledge & Reason, Human Flourishing, Community Building, Justice, Culture & Creation, Economic Growth & Progress, Little Pleasures, and System Changes & Moonshots.

Some examples, drawn from the book:

Use technology to further our understanding of the universe. 

Ensure that the Legislature keeps pace with technological advances.

Democratise access to fashion. 

Help people to grow their focus and reclaim their attention in the Age of Distraction. 

Build products that delight users. 

Help individuals to understand themselves better via their preferences. 

Build homes that people want to grow old in. 

I help people work on the right problem.

I solidify promising prototypes.

I test ideas in the wild. 

I create tools that support people making difficult moral judgements. 

I work to ensure that human rights are global. 

I give young scientists the tools to do novel research. 

I help young people identify questions worth asking.

I shine a mirror on society's bad habits. 

Help people craft their life narrative. 

Use language in ways that make people think. 

Use language in ways that help to open minds.

I make meals that put smiles on peoples faces. 

Build tools that make business fun. 

— — —

I invite you to test these beliefs. And test them quickly.

This book is designed for exactly this. 

And begin experimenting with that purpose, immediately.